Sink The Yachts, Raise The Wages!

Orca whales are coming for the superyachts... Plus Sri Lanka, Palestine, boycotts and more

Tansy Hoskins

16 Aug 2025 • 7 min read

Hello,

It’s been a while since I wrote my newsletter as this summer has been a bit of a scramble.

I was working to finish my fourth book and hand it in. The wait for that first bit of feedback from an editor can feel like a vulnerable time – when work goes from being totally private and all consuming to landing on someone else’s desk. I had to practice letting go and trusting the process. When the feedback came it was absolutely great (!) which has made me really keen to share it with you around this time next year.

I’ve also started a new job which is keeping me extremely busy, but I have given myself some time to write this as there's lots I want to share. Here are three important updates from the garment industry. Followed by three happy things, three articles, teaching dates and lastly one thing that I said I’d never do with this newsletter.

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1) Sink The Yachts, Raise The Wages!

On the 20^th September 2025, the Rana Plaza Solidarity Collective is gathering in Central London to join the Make Them Pay demonstration – a global day of action highlighting inequality in the lead up to COP 30 in Brazil.

We will be marching together in a Billionaires Out Of Fashion bloc and calling for radical change in the fashion industry.

We believe that while a £2 dress or £1 bikini is a sign of a broken fashion industry, so is a superyacht. The only reason the yachts owned by men like Amancio Ortega (Zara), Bernard Arnault (LVMH) and Jeff Bezos (Amazon) even exist is because they deliberately squeeze every penny they can out of garment workers.

Exploitation is why 91% of Bangladeshi workers struggle to afford food for their families, meanwhile Jeff Bezos has a $500 million yacht and spent $237 million on just three of his luxury Miami mansions. We cannot allow this inequality to continue.

You are welcome to join us on the demonstration – we are meeting on the corner of Duchess St and Portland Place in Central London at 12 midday. What three words: Park.Change.Pops – click for Map. Nearest tube station: Oxford Circus.

Please see Make Them Pay for more details about the demonstration.

Because there are no superyachts without blinding inequality, because owning a superyacht is about the most harmful thing someone can do to the planet, and because Orca whales like flipping yachts over, we are teaming up with an entire pod of Orca whales to say Sink The Yachts, Raise The Wages!

Please wear BLACK & WHITE. Join the Orcas!

2) Fired By WhatsApp

British brand NEXT have acted disgustingly in Sri Lanka.

In May NEXT announced record level profits at its AGM. A few days later, NEXT shut down a factory that it owns in Sri Lanka citing ‘high costs’ – plot twist, the factory was unionised.

1,416 workers were fired by WhatsApp message. No notice. No consultation – and workers were pressured to resign to access any compensation.

NEXT moved production to cheaper, non-unionised factories – not because they had to, but because they could. With lower wages and fewer protections, NEXT can cut costs – and punish workers for organising.

The firings are a severe punishment – local unions have had to set up Solidarity Kitchens to feed NEXT workers, who were already experiencing financial hardship due to the economic crisis in Sri Lanka.

If you want more on why NEXT’s ‘high costs’ argument is a bunch of rubbish, read this briefing.

Union event held in support of the NEXT workers. Photos: Free Trade Zones & General Services Employees Union

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3) Boycott Reebok

Reebok has officially been added to the list of brands being boycotted because they are complicit in Israel's grave crimes against Palestinians. Reebok is the main sponsor of the Israel Football Association (IFA), which includes teams in Israel’s illegal settlements on occupied Palestinian land. At least 807 Palestinian athletes have been killed in this awful genocide - do Reebok want to be a blood soaked brand?

What you can do:

1) Boycott Reebok and tell everyone to do the same.

2) Write to Reebok to tell them to stop sponsoring the Israeli football team.

3) Write to the CEOs of Reebok telling them the same thing.

You can very easily copy and paste the letters from here: https://antisweatshopagainstapartheid.wordpress.com/reebok-action/

Some things...

I recently saw author Maggie Shipstead caption a post with 'Some things I have enjoyed recently during this, an unenjoyable era.' This phrase stayed with me - the need to recognise and interact with the reality and experience of both sides of the coin.

Here are three things from me that I have enjoyed in these unenjoyable times.

1) The Change. Comedian Bridget Christie's drama about a menopausal woman who leaves her homelife to go and live in the woods. Channel 4 in the UK. I adore it.

2) Japan’s Master of Restoration. A BBC documentary series about a man in Japan who is extremely brilliant at repairing ceramics. It's meditative and beautiful.

3) Repair generally. I bought a jacket from a charity shop recently, not realising that the lining was shredded. I have been slowly mending it which has meant getting to know the jacket on a deeper level plus stopping it from becoming textile waste which is a win.

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Three articles

Italy

Wearing anything that says 'Made In Italy'? This is a thrilling article about the folk who made that piece of clothing. Great reporting and an inspiring story!

'Organized by the union SUDD Cobas, these walkouts, dubbed “Strike Days,” have directly involved seventy textile and garment factories in Europe’s biggest textile manufacturing hub. Highly successful, these simultaneous strikes have now won 8×5 — eight-hour days, five days a week—in sixty-eight fashion workshops and warehouses...'

Nepal

Thanks to everyone who read mine and Arun Karki's recently published investigation into textile waste in Nepal. The article is now also available from Himal Media in Nepal:

UK

Stories are starting to be published by participants on the CIJ Dark Green course (uncovering climate finance) that I taught on earlier this year. First up, this excellent story by Jasmine Owens about electricity companies leaking millions of litres of oil underground throughout the UK.

I'm teaching for the Centre for Investigative Journalism on these dates:

23 October: Intro to Information Security for Journalists (100% Essential for journalists, researchers, activists, people who use the internet...)
11 November: Module 1 - Open-Source Intelligence
18 November: Supply Chain Investigations (Sept class is sold out, but still a few places for November)
11 December: Intro to Information Security for Journalists

I said I wouldn't but...

One of the taglines I have used for this newsletter is 'It's free and won't make you shop more...' That said, I have a t-shirt recommendation, so it might this time make you shop more, but it's a pro-Palestine collab between my fave designer and my fave UK politician so...

Proceeds support Taawon’s NOOR Gaza Orphan Care Program.

Thank you so much for reading. Please forward this email or share this post with a friend. Please keep being creative and finding the things you enjoy in these difficult times. And please keep standing up for justice, the last edition of Patched contained lots of anti-war advice for supporting Palestine.

In solidarity, Tansy.